Dont Buy VBSEO

[r5e]

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

Are you getting any errors or anything like that? If not I would not worry about it but otherwise I am sure there are still vbseo tables left in your database.

Also, are you sure you removed all of the files?

Sadly I am getting errors. I cannot enable plugins at all (even though no VBSEO plugins remain and all other plugins are disabled). I have to globally disable plugins for my site to work at all.
I have removed all VBSEO files, but my suspect version checker is complaining about them missing - not complaining that they are present. I have checked the removal instructions, but this does me no good as I cannot go back and do them as I have no vbseo files or scripts to run, no plugins left to remove and no ability to download them, install them and try re-removal.
Is it possible that if there were VBSEO entries still in my database, that they could cause the suspect file versions to mis-report VBSEO files missing and also that it could cause plugins to malfunction, even if there were no VBSEO plugins mentioned in my list?
I have cleaned, deleted, reuploaded my site as much as I can, but the DB is about all that is left. How do I solve this?

[Simon Lloyd]

And you're also dead sure that there isn't anything in your .htaccess files relating to vbseo?

[r5e]

Dead sure. There is a .htaccess file in my forum's root. It is identical to the one that came with the VB 4.2.2 download (in the \do_not_upload\rewrite\apache2 folder).

RewriteEngine on

# If you are having problems or are using VirtualDocumentRoot, uncomment this line and set it to your vBulletin directory.
# RewriteBase /forum/

# If you are having problems with the rewrite from content/ to content.php, uncomment this line to turn MultiViews off.
# Options -MultiViews

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]

# Forum
RewriteRule ^threads/.* showthread.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^forums/.* forumdisplay.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^members/.* member.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^blogs/.* blog.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^entries/.* entry.php [QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]

# MVC
RewriteRule ^(?:(.*?)(?:/|$))(.*|$)$ $1.php?r=$2 [QSA]

# Check MVC result
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [R=404,L]

This is of course different to the VBSEO .htaccess file that used to be in my forum's root. Additionally, I can confirm that I have "Mod Rewrite Friendly URLS" turned on from my admincp.

[Simon Lloyd]

You will find vbseo in your database in:
(and they may not exist in all these places depending on your installation..etc)
adminutil
cron
cronlog
datastore (dont mess with this, after removing all other traces just edit a forum slightly and save to force a rebuild of the datastore)
language
phrase
plugin
product
productcode
setting
settinggroup
style
template

Make sure that all the files that have been listed for vbseo have been removed too.

HTH!

[RichieBoy67]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

It seems they do have one (kinda):
RewriteRule ^unix-desktop-dummies-questions-answers/$ /forumdisplay.php?f=33
So it appears you have to do each forum individually so if you have 30 forums you'll have to do this 30 times!, shame there's not a one line fixes all but then the hard work will be worth it and eventually you'll probably build new back links with the correct urls.

Totally not true.. Rafel wrote the rules for the urls I was using and there were just a few.

--------------- Added [DATE]1383112254[/DATE] at [TIME]1383112254[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by r5e

Dead sure. There is a .htaccess file in my forum's root. It is identical to the one that came with the VB 4.2.2 download (in the \do_not_upload\rewrite\apache2 folder).

RewriteEngine on

# If you are having problems or are using VirtualDocumentRoot, uncomment this line and set it to your vBulletin directory.
# RewriteBase /forum/

# If you are having problems with the rewrite from content/ to content.php, uncomment this line to turn MultiViews off.
# Options -MultiViews

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]

# Forum
RewriteRule ^threads/.* showthread.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^forums/.* forumdisplay.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^members/.* member.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^blogs/.* blog.php [QSA]
RewriteRule ^entries/.* entry.php [QSA]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d

RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]

# MVC
RewriteRule ^(?:(.*?)(?:/|$))(.*|$)$ $1.php?r=$2 [QSA]

# Check MVC result
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [R=404,L]

This is of course different to the VBSEO .htaccess file that used to be in my forum's root. Additionally, I can confirm that I have "Mod Rewrite Friendly URLS" turned on from my admincp.

What errors are you getting besides seeeing them in your diagnostics?

[r5e]

Thanks Simon.
Checking from phpMYAdmin, a search for "vbseo" turns up turns up 4055 entries in cronlog, these are mostly records of it creating "vbseo_sitemap_task". In the datastore, there are 2 - forumcache contains what looks like linkbacks on the homepage; vbseo_options contains what looks like my license and a whole bunch of config.
There are other smatterings in some posts and PMs, but these are just where someone's typed that text, so nothing sinister. There is a table called "searchcore_text" that seems to mention the same posts where this text appears.
I have 4 tables - vbseo_blacklist, vbseo_likes, vbseo_linkback and vbseo_serviceupdate. Only the linkback table contains data, which just looks like a few old linkbacks.

Without knowing too much about what I am doing, I suspect I can delete these last 4 tables altogether. Then I only need to worry about the vbseo_options and forumcache in the datastore. As I've been warned about messing with datastore, I'm not about to wade into delete these from phpMyAdmin. What would you recommend is the best way to clean this up?

--------------- Added [DATE]1383113778[/DATE] at [TIME]1383113778[/TIME] ---------------

Originally Posted by RichieBoy67

What errors are you getting besides seeeing them in your diagnostics?

No other error, apart from the moment I globally activate plugins, I get no pages being served. I can only get my forum working with plugins deactivated (individually disabling all of them makes no difference). The only hints I can get for what might be causing this is VBSEO bits still hanging around.
I can also confirm that I've reverted all templates, but there was nothing changed there anyway.

[Simon Lloyd]

Any table that starts "vbseo.." you can delete safely, dont worry about the text in pms or posts, dont' mess with datastore but that can be refreshed by editing a forum, anywhere else where you have an entry for vbseo like "product" table you can remove that entire row (i recommend making a back up of any tables you intend to edit first just to be safe rather than sorry).

Did you search for "vbseo" or did you search for %vbseo%, so i'm asking did you use quotes to search for a specific term or did you use the wildcard % ?

[r5e]

Thanks. I'll roll up my sleeves, backup and then get deleting. I will stay away from the datastore, but I will try to make forum edits and then see if this clears it.
When I searched, I didn't use any wildcard, I just entered vbseo in the search box.

--------------- Added [DATE]1383131583[/DATE] at [TIME]1383131583[/TIME] ---------------

Have deleted most of what I think is offensive (left posts, PMs and cronlog entries). I left the datastore alone. I went to the forum manager in admincp and edited each of the 4 parent forums that are used (there are quite a few child forums). At first I tried simply clicking "edit" and then save. That seemed to make no difference, so I tried changing a property, saving, then putting it back and saving again. I also went to maintenance/rebuild forum information and ran this.
However, I look at the tables in the datastore and it still contains the same 2 vbseo tables as before.
When I run the suspect version checker, it still complains about vbseo files not found, as well as index and forum.php being wrong.

Is there something more drastic I should do with the datastore? Just editing and saving does not seem to remove these tables.

[Simon Lloyd]

Are you sure that vbseo isn't showing in the PRODUCT and/or PRODUCTCODE tables?

[r5e]

Yes, positive it is not in either of these tables (as attached images show). When I searched on vbseo through my database, only the tables mentioned previously showed any matches. The product tables are clean and match what is shown from the admincp.